Harry and David Fruit and Vegetable Club

As a reward for sticking with marathon training a few months ago, my boyfriend had picked out 3 different fruits and vegetables from Harry and David. I can't seem to find these on their website anymore. And many years ago, another friend had gifted me with a box of their Riviera pears, the juiciest and most succulent pears I have ever tasted. These would make great gifts if you're hunting for ideas.

( Click to see 3 bigger pictures )

Dim Sum Quiz

I love dim sum but now that Chinatown is no longer a subway ride away, I'd like to make some of these dishes at home. But...I don't know what things are called. So quiz time. Here are 10 dim sum dishes. Give the name of the dish. Bonus points given to offering the recipe too (but with the name I can try googling for recipes). I know what some of them are called but I like having an even 10 questions on the quiz. :)

( Click to see the rest of the pictures for the dim sum quiz )

Cooking Flops and Disasters?

Seems like everyone's been cooking up a frenzy ever since getting ramped up for Thanksgiving. So...take a break and share a story of a kitchen adventure that flopped. The more spectacular the mishap, the less stupid I'll feel remembering my own mistakes. Here are two of mine:

1. My cooking up to this point mostly consisted of microwaved dinners. Actual cooking would be boiling water for pasta. I decided to graduate to home cooking using the training wheels provided by a place that would make homecooked meals that you just had to take home and heat up in the oven. I picked Chicken Pot Pie. This was going to be so much better than frozen chicken pot pies. Heat in 400F for 50 minutes or something easy like that. I could handle that. But remember...I was used to the microwave. When I took it out, I asked my boyfriend, "Um...is the lid supposed to melt?"
"What lid?"
"The chicken pot pie I bought...the lid looks like it melted."
"Did you put that in the oven? It's plastic!"
"The instructions didn't say anything about removing it...."
So we called for pizza.

( Click to read the 2nd one...this one has fire (but no one gets hurt) )